Featured Image Credit: Ivan Pantic/Tang Ming Tung/Getty Images
Topics: Technology, Politics, Film and TV, Phones, iPhone
Ellie Kemp
Topics: Technology, Politics, Film and TV, Phones, iPhone
A journalist who was put under surveillance by Harvey Weinstein has shared why simply turning your phone off each day is so important.
Never mind the unusual changes the latest iOS update has ushered in - if you own a phone, your safety could be at risk without you even realizing.
Ronan Farrow is perhaps best known for his 2017 New Yorker report on the sexual abuse allegations against disgraced movie producer Weinstein.
But he was tracked and surveilled by the Israeli private intelligence firm Black Cube at Weinstein’s request as he began his research.
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Farrow - the son of actress Mia Farrow and his estranged father Woody Allen - described the experience as 'emotionally devastating and intrusive'.
He turned the experience into an hour-long HBO documentary, uncovering tools used by 'the state' to surveil our daily lives.
Farrow explores the work of activists and their families, friends, and coworkers who - similar to himself - were targeted by the Israeli-owned NSO Group.
He explains how they were able to discover and trace back their hacked devices, with some using DIY aluminum foil known as Faraday cages.
Government officials and anonymous tech buyers also feature in the movie, claiming that no one is really safe from being watched and becoming a target of spyware.
Last week, Farrow joined The Daily Show's Desi Lydic to talk more about the documentary, while offering up his own phone safety tips.
He told Lydic: "Restart your phone every day, that’s one practical piece of advice. Because a lot of forms of this kind of spyware will be foiled by a reboot. That seems so banal but it really is a good step to take. Keep everything updated is the other thing."
The National Security Agency claim restarting your device helps to protect it from some hacking attacks, especially via malicious links and so-called zero-click exploits.
These involve bypassing your phone's security features, starting with a missed call, then the first installed files, which gradually allow access to the system so hackers can gather your information.
This usually goes unnoticed, but can be prevented by rebooting the device.
Doing this will also help your iPhone or Android run more smoothly.
Later on in the show, Farrow warned that the sorts of attacks detailed in his documentary could 'come for anyone'.
He said: "I keep getting told, by experts in this technology, that if our government doesn't curtail the use of this [spyware] and there's a lot of skepticism that the incoming administration will—you won't know if you're on some target list.
"You won't know if your phone is being hacked or how that data is being used. It's easy to see this as a distant issue... but it can come for anyone."
Surveilled is available to stream now on HBO Max.